Recycle and Reuse at Dell Quay Sailing Club

Recycle and Reuse at DQSC

This year, one of the General Committee's objectives is to support the Harbour Conservancy's drive to improve recycling and reduce waste. So this summer, the House Committee took steps to reduce and recycle waste products generated from the galley and bar. These are mostly generated during sailing events and our wonderful social activities.

Stage 1

Installed at the clubhouse are three new recycling bins with details for sorting exactly the products which can be recycled.

Why three you ask when all the waste gets thrown together in the end? Well, unless the waste is the right material and clean, it will contaminate everything and make all the waste unsuitable for recycling. These small bins can easily be tipped into our new council recycling bin for collection.

Although there are other items capable of being recycled, the aim is to start with the basics and endeavour to do them well.

Stage 2

The club now has a large council recycling bin on the quayside. This beautiful burgundy bin is a dedicated club bin and is locked so the public cannot contaminate it with rubbish. This means we are successfully recycling a huge amount of club waste products.

Stage 3

The next step underway is looking to devise and implement schemes to reduce the amount of waste products.

During Junior Week in August, several pilot schemes were successfully tried. The Juniors were asked to bring in their own plates and cutlery and take them home to wash. This vastly reduced the use of throwaway paper plates and plastic cutlery. The club now have a set of reusable water bottles to encourage less use of single-use plastic bottles.

We are looking to roll out more initiatives like this across the club activities. We hope all our members will be as supportive as the children were at Junior Week. They were great and set an example to all club members to recycle and reuse.

A FEW TIPS TO USE THE BINS

• Items need to be clean, dry and loose.
• Mixing unclean or excessively wet items renders the bin's contents unsuitable for recycling and can lead to the imposition of a fine and the non-collection of the waste.